A publicly-traded real estate investment trust, one-third owned by Vornado Realty Trust, has completed a $275 million refinancing of Rego Park II, a 600,000-square-foot retail complex in Central Queens, GlobeSt.com reported.
The seven-year loan will repay the existing loan on the property, which, as of Dec. 31, 2010, had a balance of $277 million for the $410 million retail development, GlobeSt.com said.
Tenants at the complex include Costco, Century 21 and Kohl’s. [GlobeSt]
Kohl’s has plans to open its second store on Staten Island after snagging the former New Dorp Waldbaum’s space once eyed by Target. The six-acre, Kimco Realty-owned site, at Mill Road and New Dorp Lane, has been vacant for five years. Kohl’s opened its first Staten Island store in Mariners Harbor in 2004. [SI Advance]
Kohl’s has plans to open its second store on Staten Island after snagging the former New Dorp Waldbaum’s space once eyed by Target. The six-acre, Kimco Realty-owned site, at Mill Road and New Dorp Lane, has been vacant for five years. Kohl’s opened its first Staten Island store in Mariners Harbor in 2004. [SI Advance]
The stretch of 57th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue is poised to become a haven for discount fashion-seekers with the arrival of TJ Maxx in time for the 2010 holiday season, the Post reported. The retail chain has leased 28,000 square feet at W&H Properties’ 250 West 57th Street — the entire ground floor, second floor and part of the basement — for its third Manhattan location. W&H, which was asking $350 per square foot for the ground floor, had to relocate several tenants and rezone the property in order to accomplish the deal. TJ Maxx joins the Gap, which also recently signed a lease renewal on the block, but can breathe a sigh of relief because talks between rival discount clothier Kohl’s and Joseph Moinian for space at his 3 Columbus Circle across the street have reportedly fallen through. [Post]
From the January issue: Darrell Rubens brokered the deals for high-end fashion stores Thomas
Pink and Canali in early 2007 during the luxury rush Downtown.
Last fall, however, he inked leases for Korean chicken chain
BonChon Chicken at 104 John Street and nail salon Spring Sun Nail at
119 Fulton Street. “Obviously, it’s slowed,” said Rubens, senior managing director at Winick Realty Group.
Four years after BMW touched off a luxury boom that brought Tiffany
& Co. and Hermès to Lower Manhattan’s Wall and Broad Street
corridors, the district’s upscale aspirations have collided with the
hard reality of the Great Recession. By the middle of last month, no new luxury fashion transactions had been completed in 2009 in Lower Manhattan, according to numerous local brokers and Alliance for Downtown New York research reports. Instead, the openings touted by the Downtown Alliance in its first-, second- and third-quarter retail market overviews were mainly casual restaurants including Swich, which makes pressed sandwiches, and discount fashion stores such as Bolton’s and Strawberry.
Kohl’s is moving its New York design office from 1395 Broadway to 1400 Broadway — a location with more than twice the space of the original office, at 38th Street. The discount department store brand will open its new design space in June, according to an announcement made this week, and will use the space to manage its licensed brands, including Candies, Chaps Home, and Simply Vera, a spin-off of the popular Vera Wang line. A statement from the tenant’s broker, Alexander Chudnoff of Cushman & Wakefield, indicated that Kohl’s will lease the entire 19th and 20th floors, encompassing approximately 60,366 rentable square feet. TRD
From the December issue: This holiday shopping season, the biggest sale in Manhattan just might be for flagship space. As 2009 draws to a close, the anemic pace of major retail leasing — the five major Manhattan retail submarkets tracked by Cushman & Wakefield scored just one deal over 10,000 square feet this year, compared to 11 across the same five submarkets in 2008 — has started picking up. Following a deal by furniture retailer Raymour & Flanagan for 30,000 square feet in August, brokers say tenants are finally looking around, after almost zero activity in the first half of the year. Bradley Mendelson, an executive director of Cushman & Wakefield, told The Real Deal he had a signed commitment last month from a tenant for 16,500 square feet of corner and second-floor space at 666 Fifth Avenue, perhaps the most prominent of a slew of major flagship vacancies across Manhattan. More
Kohl’s Department Store may be coming to Manhattan, and the company is eyeing the first five floors of Joseph Moinian’s 1775 Broadway tower at Columbus Circle for its new space. Unfortunately, the building’s lights are slated to go out by Nov. 16, unless Moinian ponies up the overdue electric bill, which is easier said than done. Moinian, who bought the building for $130 million in 1999, is also straining to keep up with loan payments on the 26-story property, which are expected to increase by 23 percent early next year. A source told Crain’s that Moinian could lose the building if he doesn’t land a major tenant like Kohl’s. Moinian already lost 475 Fifth Avenue to Barclays Capital last year, and has said he will default on loans at 180 Maiden Lane and 17 Battery Place North. Kohl’s, meanwhile, is reportedly also looking at alternatives to Moinian’s 1775 Broadway, like 224 West 57th Street and a Union Square space. [Crain’s]
If you are a national or international retailer, it is your objective to operate a retail store in New York City, with Manhattan remaining the prize location. And in the down market, more national chains are capitalizing on lower rents. On July 31, Texas-based J.C. Penney opened its first Manhattan location at the Manhattan Mall. Later this year, residents of Manhattan will no longer have to travel to Astoria or Brooklyn to shop at Costco Warehouse Club. Costco is scheduled to open its long-awaited store in East Harlem at 116th Street at East River Plaza. [more]
